System for modifying and targeting advertising content of internet radio broadcasts

ABSTRACT

A radio station transmits its broadcast audio content, including audible advertisements, to listeners over the Internet via an Internet Hosting Service that provides listener access to radio station content. A computing system at the radio station digitizes the audio, and supplies marking information that identifies the beginning and duration of commercials. The digital marking information is supplied with the radio station&#39;s audio to the Internet Hosting Service. The Internet Hosting Service maintains a repository of replacement audio commercials along with information about the commercials including duration. Upon receiving the digital marker indicating the presence of a commercial, the Internet Hosting Service selects a replacement commercial of comparable duration from its repository. The Internet Hosting Service then substitutes the replacement commercial for the original broadcast commercial and produces an edited audio program for delivery to the listeners that carries advertising of higher value than the original advertising.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 60/119,443, filed Feb. 10, 1999 entitled “System ForModifying And Targeting Advertising Content of Internet RadioBroadcasts”. This application is a continuation reissue of applicationSer. No. 13/790,418, now U.S. Pat. No. RE46,917, filed Mar. 8, 2013,which is a continuation reissue of application Ser. No. 12/931,733, nowU.S. Pat. No. RE44,477, filed Oct. 11, 2011, which is an application forreissue of U.S. Pat. No. 7,490,053, filed Jan. 5, 2000, which claimspriority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/119,443, filed Feb. 10,1999.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method for substituting replacementcommercial advertisements in place of original broadcast commercials forradio programs broadcast via the Internet.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Advertising is the primary mechanism by which producers of products andservices capture the attention of potential consumers. In today's globalmarketplace of chaos and dislocation, the need for advertising has neverbeen greater. Traditionally, mass advertising occurs by way of massdistribution through television, radio, newspapers and the like.Usually, advertisers prescribe the media content and pay for the massdistribution thereof. In some instances, the consumer subsumes a portionof the costs of the advertisements, as for example, by paying for anewspaper subscription. The advent of computer-driven technology, andespecially the Internet, has rendered traditional advertising methodsobsolete.

The Internet is a system of linked computers that provides for globalinformation exchange and includes innumerable sites, each of whichpresents advertising, research and other information about a particularorganization. Many organizations now rely on the Internet to obtain andtransmit crucial and, oftentimes, sensitive information. Thus, theInternet has quickly become one of the most effective means by which anorganization can globally advertise its goods and services.

It is now possible to listen to radio programs with a personal computeror other device capable of receiving audio data via the Internet. Thisis because it is becoming common for a regular broadcast radio stationto make their programs available via the Internet. Internet radioprograms originate from many different regions of the world. As aresult, they are frequently sprinkled with commercial advertisementsthat are targeted to the region from which the program originated. Acommercial for an automobile dealer in Lisbon is of little value to anInternet listener in Philadelphia. On the other hand, an InternetHosting Service providing radio station content to the listener wouldbenefit by substituting commercials of advertisers interested inreaching such listeners. The original commercials provide no benefit tothe original radio station or advertisers, nor to the listener, nor arethey a source of revenue for a business organization such as an InternetHosting Service which presents radio stations on the Internet.

There remains a need in the art for an effective way to substitutereplacement commercials for original broadcast commercials in radioprograms transmitted via the Internet.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a method forsubstituting replacement commercial advertisements in place of originalbroadcast commercials for radio programs broadcast via the Internet.Generally stated, the method enables (a) generating a plurality ofreplacement radio commercials of various predetermined time lengths,whereby each replacement radio commercial has an associated time length;(b) digitizing the replacement radio commercials and the associated timelengths; (c) storing in an array the digitized replacement radiocommercials and the associated time lengths, the array being stored byan Internet Hosting Service; (d) marking each of the broadcast radiocommercials with a digital marker by the radio station, the digitalmarker indicating the start and duration time of the broadcast radiocommercial within the Internet radio program; (e) transmitting themarked Internet radio program to the Internet Hosting Service; (f)receiving of the marked Internet radio program by the Internet HostingService; (g) detecting a digital marker of a commercial on the receivedInternet radio program; (h) reading the duration time of the receivedcommercial from the detected digital marker; (i) comparing the readduration time with the associated time lengths stored in the array; (j)selecting from the array a digitized replacement radio commercial havingan associated time length equal to the read duration time; (k)substituting the selected digitized replacement radio commercial inplace of the broadcast commercial; and (l) repeating steps (g) through(k) until the end of the Internet radio program, whereby the listener ofthe Internet radio program receives an edited program having one or morereplacement radio commercials substituted in place of the broadcastradio commercials.

Further, the invention provides a system for substituting broadcastcommercials of an Internet radio program, with replacement commercials,comprising: (a) radio station means for marking the broadcastcommercials of the Internet radio program with a mark, the markindicating the start and time duration of the broadcast commercial; (b)input computer server means of an Internet Hosting Service for receivingthe marked Internet radio program; (c) commercial storage means forstoring a plurality of digitized replacement audio commercials; (d)central processor means for selecting one of the digitized replacementaudio commercials from the commercial storage means; (e) marker decodermeans for decoding the mark, the mark being supplied to the centralprocessor; (f) digital audio processor means for generating an editedradio program by substituting the selected digitized replacement audiocommercial in place of the broadcast commercial; and (g) output computerserver means for transmitting the edited radio program to a user.

Optionally, the invention provides a system wherein the commercialstorage means further stores commercial type and a user profile storagemeans stores individual user ID and user demographics, whereby thecentral processor employs the user ID to match the user demographics tothe commercial type for selecting a commercial targeted to the user.

Also optionally, as the audio content emanating from the radio stationis digitized, it is placed into data packets each bearing a sequentialserial number. The digitizing mark that is created to identify thepresence of a commercial is embedded with the serial numbers of theaudio packets constituting the beginning and the duration of thecommercial. The Internet Hosting Service, upon receiving the audiostream from the radio station in serialized packet format, along withthe marking information stream containing the serial numbers of thepackets containing audio commercials, can precisely remove the audiobroadcast commercial and substitute it with a replacement commercialwith no audible artifacts suggesting to the listener that suchreplacement has taken place.

Conveniently, a large percentage of radio stations utilize a computersystem rather than tapes or CD's for the origination of the majority oftheir audio content, including music and commercials. Such systems,referred to generally as “broadcast automation systems” or “live assistsystems” actually play the audio for the music or the commercial. Abroadcast automation system maintains a listing of all audio events thatthe station plans to broadcast, including critical information of eachevent such as event type and duration. It can signal the precisebeginning and ending of each event, and can transmit the identifyingdata associated with each event to an external system such as anInternet Hosting Service. Broadcast automation systems, having thecapabilities listed above, facilitate the implementation of advertisingreplacements as described herein.

Advantageously, the method of the present invention permits an InternetHosting Service to substitute local advertisements in place oforiginally broadcast advertisements in radio programs broadcast via theInternet. The invention enables the Internet Hosting Service to generateadditional revenues and to target advertisements to its customers.Customers are provided with increased opportunity to receive informationconcerning services or products more attuned to their needs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be more fully understood and further advantages willbecome apparent when reference is made to the following detaileddescription and the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram representing the modification ofadvertisements during the flow of an Internet radio program from theprogram originator to the listener;

FIG. 2 schematically depicts a radio program segment containingcommercials and marker; and

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a system for substituting local radiocommercials in place of broadcast Internet radio commercials.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a method forsubstituting replacement commercial advertisements in place of originalbroadcast commercials for radio programs broadcast via the Internet.Internet radio programs originate from many different regions of theworld. As a result, they are frequently sprinkled with commercialadvertisements that are targeted to the region from which the programoriginated. A commercial for an automobile dealer in Lisbon is of littlevalue to an Internet listener in Philadelphia. On the other hand, anInternet Hosting Service providing Internet radio station access to thelistener would benefit by substituting commercials of advertisersinterested in reaching such listeners.

The invention provides a method for substituting replacement radiocommercials in place of broadcast radio commercials by an InternetHosting Service. In practice, each commercial is marked by the radiostation with a digital marker that indicates the start and length ofeach commercial in the program broadcast. When the program is receivedby the Internet Hosting Service, each commercial is identified by itsmarker and a replacement commercial of the appropriate length isselected from a list of commercials kept by the Internet Hosting Serviceand substituted in place of the original commercial. The InternetHosting Service may be any type of service which has the ability toreceive communications from a radio station. That is to say, theInternet Hosting Service may be a private communications entity, abroadcasting network data center, a service provider or the like. In oneembodiment, the Internet Hosting Service may comprise the same entity asan Internet service provider.

As illustrated by FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, marked Internet radioprograms 12 from a plurality of program originators 10 are sent tohosting service 13 via the Internet. The arrows in FIG. 1 indicatetransfers, including Internet transfers. These Internet radio programshave broadcast radio commercials as part of their content. Ad markingsystems 11, which may be broadcast automation systems of the radiostations, introduce digital markings to accompany the audio contentindicating the beginning and duration of audio ads in the audio stream.Further, ad marking systems 11 may digitize the radio station audiocontent into packets bearing sequential serial numbers, and the digitalmarkings which indicate the beginning and end of audio ads may relatesuch beginnings and endings to audio packet serial numbers. Hostingservice 13 receives the marked audio stream wherein the audio may bemusic interleaved with commercials, and the markings may be digital datapackets indicating the beginning and ending of commercials within thataudio stream. Hosting service 13 maintains a database of replacementaudio ads 14 encompassing the ads and associated data describing each adsuch as duration and the desired user demographics that the advertiserwould like to reach. Hosting service 13 replaces audio ads emanatingfrom the radio station program originator 10 with replacement ads ofequivalent duration drawn from replacement ad database 14, in theprocess creating an edited Internet radio program 16. The resolution ofthe Ad Marking System 11 in digitizing the audio stream into serializedpackets enables the creation of edited Internet radio programs 16 whichare absent of audible artifacts to indicate that ad substitution hastaken place. Edited Internet radio programs 16 are delivered tolisteners 19 via the Internet Service Providers 17 which provideInternet access to the listeners 19. Listeners 19 listen to the Internetradio stations from program originators 10, hearing different ads fromthose who might contemporaneously listen to the radio station'sover-the-air broadcast with a conventional radio. Optionally, thehosting service 13 may examine the desired user demographics associatedwith replacement ads 14 and match them against the user demographicdatabase 15 comprised of demographic information about listeners 19. Iflisteners 19 have differing demographics, the edited Internet radioprograms 16 may be unique for each demographic type of listener 19 whomay be listening to the same Internet radio station. That is, maleslistening to Internet radio station WXYZ may receive a different editedInternet radio program 16 from females listening to the same station.

The method for substituting replacement radio commercials in place of aplurality of broadcast radio commercials on an Internet radio programtransmitted by a hosting service 13 to a listener 19 via an Internetservice provider 17 comprises the steps of: (a) generating a pluralityof replacement radio commercials of various predetermined time lengths,whereby each replacement radio commercial has an associated time length;(b) digitizing the replacement radio commercials and the associated timelengths; (c) storing in an array the digitized replacement radiocommercials and the associated time lengths, the array being stored bythe Internet Hosting Service 13; (d) marking each of the broadcast radiocommercials with a digital marker by the ad marking system 11, thedigital marker indicating the start and duration time of the broadcastradio commercial within the Internet radio program 12; (e) transmittingthe marked Internet radio program 12 to the Internet Hosting Service 13;(f) receiving the marked Internet radio program 12 by the InternetHosting Service 13; (g) examining the marked Internet radio program 12by the Internet Hosting Service 13; (h) detecting a digital marker of acommercial on the marked Internet radio program 12; (i) reading theduration time of the commercial from the detected digital marker; (j)comparing the read duration time with the associated time lengths storedin the array; (k) selecting from the array a digitized replacement radiocommercial having an associated time length equal to the read durationtime; (l) substituting the selected digitized replacement radiocommercial in place of the commercial; and (m) repeating steps (h)through (l) until the end of the Internet radio program.

A segment of Internet radio program 20 starts at 21 and ends at 29.Segment 20 is comprised of program elements 22 and commercials 24, 26,28 of differing time durations. The hosting service 13 or the programoriginator 10 is provided with a means for marking the beginning of eachcommercial with marker 31. Marker 31 comprises a start indicator and atime duration of commercials 24, 26 and 28. The marking means can takeany number of methods known in the art, such as putting a digitalpulse-modulated inaudible tone on a subcarrier of the audio wave.Alternatively, marking the start and time duration of the commercial isaccomplished by adding a digital marker information packet to the audiodata stream.

FIG. 3 illustrates the system used by Internet Hosting Service 13 forreading marked Internet radio program 12 received from programoriginator 10. Internet Hosting Service 13 maintains commercial storagemeans 14. Commercial storage means 14 comprises a database of digitizedradio commercials of various predetermined time lengths along with eachcommercial's time length. Commercial storage means 14 is used to supplyan appropriate duration commercial on demand. Preferably, InternetHosting Service 13 also maintains user profile array 15. This arraycomprises user ID and demographic information, whereby the demographicinformation may be used to target specific commercials to specificusers.

Advantageously, the method of the present invention permits an InternetHosting Service to substitute replacement advertisements in place oforiginally broadcast advertisements in radio programs broadcast via theInternet. The invention enables the Internet Hosting Service to generateadditional revenues and to target advertisements to its customers.

In practice, radio station program originator 10 sends broadcast audioto ad marking system 11, and then transmits marked Internet radioprogram 12 via the Internet to Internet Hosting Service input server 40of Internet Hosting Service 13. Marked Internet radio program is sent asdata stream 12a to marker decoder 48. Marker decoder 48 reads marker 31and decodes time duration 32. Internet radio program data stream 12b andtime duration 32 are passed to central processor 46. Central processor46 uses time duration 32 to find an equal length substitute commercialfrom commercial storage means 14. The selected commercial is returned tocentral processor 46 as replacement commercial audio stream 38. Centralprocessor 46 substitutes replacement commercial audio stream 38 for theoriginal commercial resulting in edited program 16. Edited program 16 ispassed to Internet Hosting Service output server 52 and then sent viaInternet through the Internet Service Provider 17 to the user, listener19.

Optionally, the system further comprises user profile storage means 15,where demographics of each user are stored along with the user's IDnumber. User ID 35, obtained from output server 52, is also passed tocentral processor 46 and to user profile storage means 15. In thismanner, the system is provided with means for selecting a commercialtargeted for a specific user or type of user.

The invention provides a system for substituting broadcast commercialsof an Internet radio program, with replacement commercials, comprising:(a) radio station means for marking the broadcast commercials of theInternet radio program with a mark, the mark indicating the start andtime duration of the broadcast commercial; (b) input server means forreceiving the marked Internet radio program; (c) commercial storagemeans for storing a plurality of digitized radio commercials; (d)central processor means for selecting one of the digitized radiocommercials from the commercial storage means; (e) marker decoder meansfor decoding the mark, the mark being supplied to the central processor;(f) central processor mixing means for generating an edited radioprogram by substituting the selected digitized radio commercial in placeof the broadcast commercial; and (g) output server for transmitting theedited radio program to a user.

Optionally, the invention provides a system wherein the commercialstorage means further stores commercial type and a user profile storagemeans stores individual user ID and user demographics, whereby thecentral processor employs the user ID to match the user demographics tothe commercial type for selecting a commercial targeted for a specificuser or type of user.

Having thus described the invention in rather full detail, it will beunderstood that such detail need not be strictly adhered to but thatvarious changes and modifications may suggest themselves to one skilledin the art, all falling within the scope of the present invention asdefined by subjoined claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An interactive method for substitutingreplacement radio commercials in place of a plurality of broadcast radiocommercial streams on an Internet radio program broadcast by a radiostation to an Internet hosting service based on user preferencesindicating demographic, and personal preferences, comprising the stepsof: (a) generating a plurality of replacement radio commercial streamsof various predetermined time lengths, whereby each replacement radiocommercial has an associated time length; (b) digitizing saidreplacement radio commercial streams and said associated time lengths;(c) storing in an array said digitized replacement radio commercialstreams and said associated time lengths, said array stored at anInternet service provider; (d) maintaining user demographic informationand user preferences; (e) marking each of said broadcast radiocommercial streams with a digital marker by said radio station, saiddigital marker indicating the start and duration time of said broadcastradio commercial within said Internet radio program; (f) transmittingsaid marked Internet radio program stream to said Internet hostingservice; (g) receiving of said marked Internet radio program stream bysaid Internet hosting service; (h) examining of said marked Internetradio program stream by said Internet hosting service; (i) detecting adigital marker of a commercial on said received Internet broadcastprogram stream; (j) reading the duration time, of said commercial, fromsaid detected digital marker; (k) comparing said read duration time withsaid associated time lengths stored in said array; (l) selecting fromsaid array a digitized replacement radio commercial having an associatedtime length equal to said read duration time to match said demographicinformation and said user preferences with said replacement commercialstream having an associated time length equal to said real durationtime; (m) substituting said selected digitized replacement radiocommercial stream in place of said broadcast commercial stream; and (n)repeating steps (h) through (l) until the end of said Internet radioprogram, whereby the listener of said Internet radio program streamreceives an edited program stream having one or more replacement radiocommercial streams substituted in place of said broadcast radiocommercial.
 2. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein said marking ofbroadcast radio commercial streams is performed by a radio stationcomputer system, such as a broadcast automation system.
 3. A method asrecited in claim 2 wherein the audio stream of the radio station isdigitized into packets bearing sequential serial numbers, and saidmarking of broadcast commercial streams by marking the start time andduration of the commercial identifies the audio packet serial numbersconstituting the beginning and duration of the audio commercial to bereplaced.
 4. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the Internet hostingservice maintains commercial type information for targeting ads toconsumers, and user demographic information, and matches said userdemographics and personal preferences to said commercial type forselecting a commercial targeted to said user.
 5. An interactive systemfor substituting broadcast commercial streams of an Internet radioprogram stream, with replacement commercial streams, comprising: (a)radio station means for marking said broadcast commercial streams ofsaid Internet radio program with a mark, said mark indicating the startand time duration of said broadcast commercial stream; (b) input servermeans for receiving said marked Internet radio program stream by anInternet hosting service; (c) commercial storage means of said Internethosting service for storing a plurality of digitized radio commercialstreams and user preferences; (d) central processor means for selectingone of said digitized radio commercials from said commercial storagemeans matching said user preferences; (e) marker decoder means fordecoding said mark, said mark being supplied to said central processor;(f) comparison means to select a digitalized radio commercial stream inplace of said broadcast commercial stream; (g) central processor mixingmeans for generating an edited radio program stream by substituting saidselected digitized radio commercial streams in place of said broadcastcommercial stream; and (h) output server means for transmitting saidedited radio program stream to a user.
 6. A system as recited by claim 5wherein said commercial storage means further stores commercial type. 7.A system as recited by claim 5 further comprising user profile storagemeans for storing individual user ID and user demographics, whereby saidcentral processor employs said user ID to match said user demographicsand said user preferences to said commercial type for selecting acommercial targeted to said user.
 8. A system for modifying andtargeting advertising content of an Internet radio broadcast,comprising: an originating subsystem comprising, an audio sourceemitting an audio track for a radio program, the audio track containingaudio ads; a processor-controlled subsystem, emitting data comprisingthe start time and duration of each of the audio ads; an ad markingsystem, comprising a processor, adapted to receive the audio track;receive the data comprising the start time and duration of each of theaudio advertisements; generate a marked digitized stream comprisingaudio data from the audio track and at least one digital marker embeddedin the digitized stream, indicating the beginning of an original audioad contained within the audio track and either or both of the durationand end of the original ad; and send the marked stream to a streamingserver via the Internet; a streaming server subsystem adapted to receiveand process the stream, comprising a processor adapted to receive themarked stream from the ad marking system via the Internet; receive arequest from a user for a stream; retrieve demographic data for anidentity associated with the request from previously stored information;read the at least one digital marker from the marked stream anddetermine therefrom the start and duration of an original audio ad inthe marked stream; retrieve from a repository of audio ads categorizedby type and duration a replacement audio ad of a duration equivalent tothe determined duration and of a type matching the retrieved demographicdata; insert the replacement ad in an output stream in place of theoriginal ad; and send the output stream to the requesting user; saidsystem functioning such that each of a plurality of individual userslistening to the Internet radio broadcast transmitted by said systemreceives a program stream containing demographically targeted audioadvertising content according to demographic data of that individualuser.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor of the ad markingsystem is further adapted to generate the stream such that it iscomprised of sequentially numbered packets and such that the at leastone digital marker contains packet number information indicating thebeginning of the original audio ad and either or both of the durationand end of the original ad; further wherein the processor of thestreaming server subsystem is further adapted to use the packet numberinformation of the at least one digital marker to replace the originalad with the replacement ad.
 10. A streaming server system fordistributing demographically targeted advertising to a plurality ofusers listening to a radio program over the Internet, comprising aprocessor adapted to receive a marked digitized stream via the Internetfrom a radio program originator, comprising an audio track for a radioprogram containing original audio ads and containing at least onedigital marker embedded in the digitized stream indicating the beginningof an original audio ad contained within the audio track and either orboth of the duration and end of the original ad; receive a request froma user for a stream; retrieve demographic data from previously storedinformation for an identity associated with the request; determine fromthe at least one digital marker the start and duration of the originalad; retrieve from a repository of audio ads categorized by type andduration a replacement audio ad of a duration equivalent to thedetermined duration and of a type matching the retrieved demographicdata; insert the replacement ad in place of the original ad in thestream; and send the stream to the requesting user; said streamingserver functioning such that each of a plurality of individual userslistening to the Internet radio broadcast transmitted by said streamingserver receives a program stream containing demographically targetedaudio advertising content according to demographic data of thatindividual user.
 11. The streaming server system of claim 10, whereinthe stream received from the radio program originator comprisessequentially numbered packets such that the at least one digital markercontains packet number information indicating the beginning of theoriginal audio ad and either or both of the duration and end of theoriginal ad, and further wherein the processor is further adapted to usethe packet number information of the at least one digital marker toreplace the original ad with the replacement ad.
 12. A method formodifying and demographically targeting advertising content of anInternet radio broadcast, comprising: by an audio source, emitting anaudio track for a radio program, the audio track containing audio ads;by a processor-controlled subsystem, emitting data comprising the starttime and duration of each of the audio ads; by an ad marking systemcomprising a processor, receiving the audio track; receiving the datacomprising the start time and duration of each of the audio ads;generating a marked digitized stream comprising audio data from theaudio track and at least one digital marker embedded in the digitizedstream indicating the beginning of an original audio ad contained withinthe audio track and either or both of the duration and end of theoriginal ad; and sending the marked stream to a streaming server via theInternet; by a streaming server, receiving the marked stream from the admarking system via the Internet; receiving a request from a user for astream; retrieving demographic data for an identity associated with therequest from previously stored information; reading the at least onedigital marker from the stream and determining therefrom the start andduration of the original ad; retrieving from a repository of audio adscategorized by type and duration a replacement audio ad of a durationequivalent to the determined duration and of a type matching theretrieved demographic data; inserting the replacement ad in place of theoriginal ad in the stream; and sending the stream to the requestinguser; wherein each of a plurality of individual users listening to theInternet radio broadcast receives a program stream containingdemographically targeted audio advertising content according todemographic data of that individual user.
 13. The method of claim 12,wherein the steps performed with the processor of the ad marking systemfurther comprise generating the stream such that it is comprised ofsequentially numbered packets and such that the at least one digitalmarker contains packet number information indicating the beginning ofthe original audio ad and either or both of the duration and end of theoriginal ad; and wherein the steps performed with the processor of thestreaming server subsystem further comprise using the packet numberinformation of the at least one digital marker to replace the originalad with the replacement ad.
 14. A method performed with a processor fordistributing a radio program stream containing original audio ads to aplurality of users listening to a radio program over the Internet,comprising: receiving the radio program from a radio program originatorvia the Internet in the form of a marked digitized stream comprising anaudio track and at least one digital marker embedded in the digitizedstream indicating the beginning of an original audio ad contained withinthe audio track and either or both of the duration and end of theoriginal ad; receiving a request from a user for a stream; retrievingdemographic data for an identity associated with the request frompreviously stored information; determining from the at least one digitalmarker the start and duration of the original ad; retrieving from arepository of audio ads categorized by type and duration a replacementad of a duration equivalent to the determined duration and of a typematching the retrieved demographic data; inserting the replacement ad inplace of the original ad in the stream; and sending the stream to therequesting user; wherein each of a plurality of individual userslistening to the Internet radio broadcast receives a program streamcontaining demographically targeted audio advertising content accordingto demographic data of that individual user.
 15. The method of claim 14,wherein the stream received from the radio program originator comprisessequentially numbered packets such that the at least one digital markercontains packet number information indicating the beginning of theoriginal ad and either or both of the duration and end of the originalad, said method further comprising using the packet number informationof the at least one digital marker to replace the original ad with thereplacement ad.
 16. An article of manufacture for adapting a streamingmedia server for serving a radio program stream to a plurality of userslistening to the program over the Internet, comprising a non-transitorymachine-readable medium on which there has been recorded instructionscomprising: routines for receiving a marked digitized stream from aradio program originator via the Internet comprising an audio track fora radio program and at least one digital marker embedded in thedigitized stream indicating the beginning of an original audio ad in theaudio track and either or both of the duration and end of the originalad; routines for receiving from a user a request for a stream; routinesfor retrieving demographic data for an identity associated with therequest from previously stored information; routines for determiningfrom the at least one digital marker the start and duration of theoriginal ad; routines for retrieving from a repository of audio adscategorized by type and duration a replacement ad of a durationequivalent to the determined duration and of a type matching theretrieved demographic data; routines for inserting the replacement ad inplace of the original ad in the stream; and routines for sending thestream to the requesting user; said routines operating with the effectthat each of a plurality of individual users listening to the Internetradio broadcast receives a program stream containing demographicallytargeted audio advertising content according to demographic data of thatindividual user.
 17. The article of claim 16, wherein the receivedmarked digitized stream comprises sequentially numbered packets and theroutine for determining from the at least one digital marker the startand duration of the original ad performs the further function ofdetermining packet number information indicating said start andduration.